Miliband said: “Barack Obama looks as though he would definitely have been part of my gang at school, The League of Zarjaz Earthlets.
“I may even detach the Space Spinner free gift from issue one for some light-hearted yet reverent fun.”
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London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 9 August 2014
[comics] Miliband to show Obama his 2000AD collection … an important question – which world leaders are Squaxx dek Thargo? …
Miliband said: “Barack Obama looks as though he would definitely have been part of my gang at school, The League of Zarjaz Earthlets. 8 August 2014
[blogs] A Brief History of Bloggering … Giles Turnbull reports on the early days of blogs … ‘In the UK, the blogging scene began in London. Greg Fisher remembers it well. “I was blogging about the break-up of my first, second, and third relationships,” he says. Greg’s blog was a huge hit. He had over five regular readers, two of them via RSS. This was a huge success by British standards at the time. By any standards, actually. He couldn’t believe his good fortune.’
7 August 2014
[space] Stunning Images from Rosetta Show Closeup Views of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko … go look at this collection of images the Rosetta spacecraft sent back after entering orbit around the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko yesterday.
6 August 2014
[clowns] Don’t Be Afraid Of The Clowns … Leigh Cowart visits the 2014 World Clown Association convention …
I am not afraid of clowns. But there’s something that happens when you walk into the forgettable bathroom of a hotel lobby and meet a fully made-up clown standing by the sink, reflection staring back at you with the Kubrickian blankness of a greasepaint grimace. 5 August 2014
[batman] Batman the Redeemer …
4 August 2014
[comics] Dear Hollywood: Stop Using Frank Miller’s Batman Stories As Source Material … ‘Experimentation is what has kept superhero comics alive from Batman’s first appearance until this year’s Batman Day. Indeed, The Dark Knight Returns and Year One were huge risks when they hit the stands. But on the big screen, DC is beating Frank Miller’s ideas into the ground. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Miller’s twin Batman epics. But there is something creatively bankrupt about studios focusing on them so monomaniacally. As Miller himself once said, “There are 50 different ways to do Batman and they all work.” Our fate is sealed for Batman v. Superman, but we have to imagine a better future. If an ambitious filmmaker wants to make a truly innovative Batman movie, he or she needs to put Frank’s hard-boiled sagas back on the shelf…’
3 August 2014
[religion] Newspaper Discovery Sends Shock Waves Through Subgenius Community … can it be that a real-life original image of J.R. “Bob” Dobbs has been found from 1956? …
Reactions ranged from incredulity to claims of “Without a doubt, this is the most significant discovery of the age.” and “A truly earth shattering discovery!” Naysayers left comments such as “Hmmm…no dimple on the chin. I call FALSE BOB! CAST HM OUT!”, “That is not ‘Bob’ — it’s a False Bob. Do not be fooled by cheap imitations”, “The shadows are ALL WRONG. The shadows from his nose and cheeks point downwards at a 45 degree angle to the left (DOWN AND TO THE LEFT, DOWN AND TO THE LEFT), but the shadow of his PIPE go down at a 45 degree angle to the RIGHT. It’s LEE HARVEY OSWALD all over again”, and “Note the strange roundness of the pipe.” 2 August 2014
[tech] Why does Outlook map Ctrl+F to Forward instead of Find, like all right-thinking programs? … ‘And then a bug report came in from a beta tester who wanted Ctrl+F to forward rather than find, because he had become accustomed to that keyboard shortcut from the email program he used before Exchange. That beta tester was…’
1 August 2014
[politics] Ukip Duo Resign Claiming ‘Occultists’ Have Infiltrated The Party … HAIL HYDRA! Is UKIP being targeted by Angelic Reiki Masters?… ‘A Ukip parliamentary candidate and his branch chairman have resigned after claiming the local party is being infiltrated by what they see as “occultists”. Jake Baynes, who was to run in the Somerset city of Wells at next year’s general election, said he felt he was being driven out by local members, including a couple based in nearby Glastonbury who practise alternative healing, which they claim is inspired and guided by angels.’
31 July 2014
[life] Love in the Key of Partridge … trying to find love – using only the words of Alan Partridge.
30 July 2014
[books] The Bible vs. Mao: A “Best Guess” of the Top 25 Bestselling Books of All Time … ’10. (tie) The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, Jehovah’s Witnesses/Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York. Published in English in 1968, 107 million copies. 10. (tie) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling. The first novel of J.K. Rowling’s famous “Harry Potter” series sold over 107 million copies since its 1997 publication.’
29 July 2014
[religion] More Engaging Copy for the Ten Commandments. … ’37 Things in Your Bedroom That You Need to Get Rid of Right Now, Like Adulteresses.’
28 July 2014
[politics] ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ – the two faces of Michael Gove … intriguing profile of the recently demoted Tory minister … ‘As brokering replaced bombing in Northern Ireland, most people in Britain were relieved, but Gove pamphleteered for an alternative strategy of “resolute security action”. He retained an anachronistic feeling for “Greater Britain”. After 9/11 he sometimes wrapped up fervent support for Blair-Bush crusades in the modern parlance of liberal interventionism, and sometimes lapsed into an older discourse. In one sweeping column, he hailed the 1704 capture of Gibraltar “as an opening chapter in democracy’s vindication”, noted “profound echoes” with today’s struggles against autocrats in the Muslim world, and even suggested that “far-sighted” Spaniards might learn to see Britain’s Iberian outpost as the rock on which western success was built. Columnists are employed to grab interest rather than decide things, but Gove’s stridency on world affairs survived his 2005 move into parliament…’
27 July 2014
[space] Spacecraft Rosetta Shows Comet has Two Components … remarkable animated image of a rubber duck shaped comet taken from the Rosetta Spacecraft chasing it through space … ‘The comet’s unusual 5-km sized comet nucleus is seen rotating over the course of a few hours, with each frame taken 20-minutes apart. Better images — and hopefully more refined theories — are expected as Rosetta is on track to enter orbit around Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s nucleus early next month, and by the end of the year, if possible, land a probe on it.’
26 July 2014
[space] The Audacious Rescue Plan That Might Have Saved Space Shuttle Columbia … The untold story of the rescue mission that might have saved the astronauts on board Columbia in 2003 … ‘The mission to rescue Columbia, though, represents the kind of task that NASA, since its beginnings, has demonstrated an unswerving ability to execute. There would have been a clear goal, there would have been hard timing requirements, and the agency’s massive pool of engineering talent would be empowered to accomplish the goal at any cost and without restriction. The will to win would not be lacking, but technical challenges are ignorant of will and drive—look, for example, at the liquid oxygen tank explosion that crippled the Apollo 13 command and service module in 1970. That explosion was the result of a combination of events that occurred prior to launch, with potential blame stretching from the tank’s manufacturer all the way to the crew itself. The error-free rescue of Columbia would have depended not just on the flawless execution of teams at all of the NASA centers but also on an unknown number of events that happened days, weeks, months, or even years in the past leading up to the mission.’
25 July 2014
[apollo] Twenty Awesome Covers From The US Space Program … ‘Manuals, guidebooks, press kits, reports, brochures – all with cool artworks and typography. Enjoy!’
24 July 2014
[space] Riding the Space Shuttle Booster into Orbit (and Back Again) … ‘A movie from the point of view of the Solid Rocket Booster with sound mixing and enhancement done by the folks at Skywalker Sound. The sound is all from the camera microphones…’ [more…]
23 July 2014
[space] The Broken Beyond: How Space Turned Into an Office Park – Technology – The Atlantic… depressing article wondering why all our dreams of exploring space have died …
Space, once a place for governments and dreamers who would really just be civil servants, has become a playground for the hyper-affluent. […] We don’t have flying cars, but we have a billionaire who sells electric cars to millionaires. We don’t have space vacations, but we have another billionaire who will take you on a magic carpet ride for two-hundred large. Today, a kid who says “I want to be an astronaut” is really just saying “I want to be rich.” Isn’t that what everyone wants? All of today’s dreams are dreams of wealth. 22 July 2014
[apollo] Moondoggle: The Forgotten Opposition to the Apollo Program … turns out a majority of Americans did not think going to the Moon was worth it in the 1960s … ‘The race to the moon may not have been wildly popular among scientists, random Americans, or black political activists, but it was hard to deny the power of the imagery returning from space. Our attention kept getting directed to the heavens — and our technology’s ability to propel humans there. It was pure there, and sublime, even if our rational selves could see we might be better off spending the money on urban infrastructure or cancer research or vocational training.’
21 July 2014
[comics] Explorers on the Moon 1969 … Tintin and Gang greets Neil Armstrong on the Moon …
20 July 2014
[apollo] The First Men on the Moon: The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing … remarkable webapp allowing you to experience the Apollo 11 moon landing minute-by-minute as it happened… ‘Eagle, Houston. If you read, you’re GO for powered descent. Over.’
19 July 2014
[sapce] Cassini Mission on Vimeo … wonderful footage set to music of Nasa’s Cassini mission to Saturn.
18 July 2014
[space] Prometheus Rising Through Saturns F Ring … go look at this picture of a moon of Saturn moving through one of the gas giant’s rings.
17 July 2014
[moon] A Stowaway to the Thanatosphere: My Voyage Beyond Apollo with Norman Mailer, Rex Weiner… Gonzo-esque tale of two stowaways on a cruise ship voyage to watch the last Apollo Moon launch in 1972 …
Nixon was president, Watergate was still a third-rate burglary, and Tom and I were left feeling anxious, paranoid, and bored. We were both admirers of Mailer—the tough little reefer smoker, contrarian wordsmith, libertarian politico, and no-nonsense ladies’ man—so the story about the Voyage Beyond Apollo stirred our interest. 16 July 2014
[space] The Extent of Human Radio Broadcasts … An image showing how far human radio broadcasts have travelled in the Milky Way.
15 July 2014
14 July 2014
[war] Burlington Bunker, under RAF Corsham, Wiltshire … a look at a cold war secret hidden underneath RAF Corsham in Wiltshire … ‘ Assembled as an emergency relocation site for the British government if the threat of nuclear war ever became reality. The bunker boasts some impressive ‘sections’ from a BBC broadcasting suite to a Hospital all accessible via 10 miles of ‘road’. Adjacent to Burlington is over 30km of tunnels and passageways belonging to Box Freestone Quarry, part of which taken over by the MOD and turned in to an air inlet. For years, explorers like myself would marvel at the MOD area of Box Mine and the mysterious ‘red door’ that sits at the end of the passage…’
13 July 2014
[movies] A Whole Bunch Of People On Facebook Thought Steven Spielberg Killed A Real Dinosaur … ‘Internet humourist Jay Branscomb posted it on Facebook with the caption: “Disgraceful photo of recreational hunter happily posing next to a triceratops he just slaughtered. Please share so the world can name and shame this despicable man.” A lot of people didn’t get the joke, and thought Spielberg really had shot a dinosaur. This person called him an “inhumane prick”…’
12 July 2014
[books] 30 Writers Other Writers Loved To Hate … ‘Saint David Foster Wallace: a generation trying to read him feels smart about themselves which is part of the whole bullshit package.’ — Bret Easton Ellis on David Foster Wallace.
11 July 2014
[disa] Nature’s Most Perfect Killing Machine… a profile of the Ebola virus… ‘I first read Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone when I was 11 years old or so, and have since been in the habit of weighing every potential catastrophe against “death by Ebola virus disease.” The book is lurid and dramatic; the iconography of a dying patient crying blood and shitting out their intestines is, I admit, compelling. Terror-inducing as it may be, though, it’s perhaps not the most accurate portrait of the threat this particular monster poses…’
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